[ARC5] restoring rusty metal tubes

[Roy Morgan]

Here in the States, we find a product called "Rust-Away".  Small rusty things immersed in it come out rust free. Applying with brush or rag does not seem to work. Immersing a tube base and all may lead to trouble. 

The stuff may loosen or remove the original paint and type number, so:
- many metal tunes have the type number stamped onto the base ring. 
- for tubes with no such type number, scratching the number into the metal would do. 
-testing the tubes before de-rusting to eliminate duds would make sense.

A wire brush/wheel in a bench grinder, drill press, or hand drill may well be less messy than the chemical method. 

I have had poor results with a product called CLR - (for Calcium Lime Rust I think)

Roy Morgan
K1LKY Western Mass

> On Sep 15, 2021, at 7:16 AM, Leslie Smith <lnsmith99 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hello all!
> 
> I bought a box full of metal tubes recently.  12A6, 12K8, 12SK7 and so on.  Many have an unattractive amount of rust on the surface, some have a small amount.  None belong to a class I would call 'collectable'.
> 
> Can anyone advise what I can do to preserve these?  My thoughts are along the lines of clean the metal case with a buffing wheel; after that re-paint with gloss spray.  All observations welcome.  I would like to save a box of common, not too flash, but probably quite functional metal octal tubes.
> 
> 73s from Australia.
> 
> Leslie
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